After finishing up the latest thinking on EAP (Everything’s A Project), I read this great article in BUILD The Catalog of Ideas, thebuildnetwork.com on this idea that Projects Are the New Job Interviews. Michael Schrage is the source, who also wrote a favorite book called Serious Play.
I had shared some of this thinking a while ago, Screw the Interview, but it’s really hard not to agree with the following:
- Resumes are dead.
- Interviews are largely ineffectual.
- References are pretty worthless.
Bottom line here is that the best way to actually find out if serious candidates can do serious work is to give them a serious project.
As Schrage asks, “Should your next hire come from a great set of interviews and references? Or from knocking your socks off on a project?”
